The Trump Administration contracted with two European drug makers, French pharmaceutical company Sanofi and its British partner, GSK, in a $2.1 billion contract as part of “Operation Warp Speed,” the Washington Post reports.
While Trump touts his Administration’s efforts to develop a vaccine and therapeutics, saying that it’s making “great progress” and we’ll “see some things very shortly,” the multi-billion contract amounts to the Administration hedging its bets in case its efforts come up short.
“The portfolio of vaccines being assembled for Operation Warp Speed increases the odds that we will have at least one safe, effective vaccine as soon as the end of this year,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.
Earlier, the companies reached an agreement with the government of the United Kingdom to provide 60 million doses of an approved vaccine. This contract give the US 100 million doses, with options to buy 500 million more.